What Would You Do?

[david63]

I was watching the Antiques Roadshow the other night and at the end there was a couple who had brought their grandfather's medals along. Now as it happened one of the medals was a Victoria Cross. After discussing the story behind the VC we came to the valuation which was somewhere between £250k and £300k. The couple seemed pleased and said that it will be going back into the bank's safety deposit.

It got me thinking as to what I would do in those circumstances. Would I sell it and enjoy the benefit? Would I keep it but never have it see the light of day (which to me seems pointless)? Or maybe loan/give it to a suitable museum?

What would you do?

[oldbluefox]

I would be giving it to a regimental museum. I'd not feel good benefiting from the bravery of my distant relative and the museum would seem the most appropriate home where others could see how it was earned. A nice legacy in his memory.

[Ray B]

So long as they insured it, a museum would be the place for it. Once you have taken an expensive item to a T V show everyone knows, where as had you not bothered you could have enjoyed displaying it at home with less danger of a breakin
so long as you kept quiet about it.

[Stephen]

I've thought about this a few times myself when seeing medals brought to TV auctions, and have always said to the boss Mrs S I just couldn't do it and sell them after the bravery someone has gone through to get them.

But then on the other hand, that little devil on my shoulder is also saying 300K is 300K.

A difficult one until you are in that situation.

[barney]

I’m the family custodian of both grandfathers medals and my Dad’s medals.
I would never part with them.
My Dad’s medal and certificates for being a pall bearer at the funeral of King George VI are beautifully framed and hanging in my hallway.
Obviously none are worth anything like the VC but no matter what, I would never sell.
When I’m dead and gone, who knows.

[Onelife]

I would sell it and not tell my wife

With each generation passing the medal will have less significance so it will be which of his offspring benefits first. If was my father’s medal I wouldn’t sell it but I would give my blessing to my daughter to invest her grandfather's sacrifice wisely.

[oldbluefox]

Mercenary lot!!!

[paultheagle]

Not a problem for me, I'd sell it.

[Onelife]

Mercenary lot!!!

The world would be a much better place with people like you Foxy….btw, I’ve done a course in valuing precious items so if you have anything of value which you want valuing “free of charge” send me a PM and I’ll give you my mailing address

[Ray B]

Save you time foxy, the address is
Onelife
Gypo site
Layby
A27

[Stephen]

Save you time foxy, the address is
Onelife
Gypo site
Layby
A27

You can’t miss him, he’s the one with crystal balls

[david63]

I think that this is a "head & heart" situation.

My heart would say keep the medal but it would have to go somewhere where it would be appreciated - not left in a bank.

My head would say sell it. The medal itself is a worthless piece of metal, which was always the intention. Selling it would not take away the memory of the deed that earned the VC.

[Stephen]

And with say 300K you could purchase a small memoriam to the person to help ease the conscience.

[oldbluefox]

I wouldn't have it in a bank vault where nobody would see it. In a regimental museum I would maintain ownership but they would cover insurance and security and I'd be able to see it whenever I wanted.
Of course a museum may be the ones to buy it so I may sell to them but not a private buyer. I may get less for it but at least it would be displayed to be seen by all.

[Ray B]

That gets my vote Foxy, best of both worlds.

[towny44]

My BIL dabbles in genealogy and tells me he found a distant relative on my families side that was awarded a VC in the first world war, but I think he said it was posthumous. It was quite distant and there were never any stories about it in the family as I was growing up.

[Onelife]

Save you time foxy, the address is
Onelife
Gypo site
Layby
A27

My extended family won’t take kindly to that comment Ray, and you will have blown any chance of getting a new cut-price tarmac drive.

[Onelife]

Save you time foxy, the address is
Onelife
Gypo site
Layby
A27

You can’t miss him, he’s the one with crystal balls

Oh, So you've noticed the way I walk then?

[CaroleF]

I'm not sure. If it was my father's medal I couldn't sell it. My grandfather fought in the first world war and was gassed and as a result died in 1921 so I never knew him and my father, born in 1918, only had one faint memory of him. I have his medals and his brother's, my great uncle who I did know but who died childless so his medals went to my father and now to me. On a similar vein but not valuable other than a memory, my father fought at Dunkirk and in the North Africa campaign with Montgomery and I have many photos which he painstakingly put in albums together with photos of his mother and her mother so going back a long way. I know who some of them are. My brother died at Easter and now I'm the only one who knows about any of them and I have wondered what will happen to all the albums and the medals for that matter.

However, my grandson, aged nearly 11, has shown an interest in them. He's working on ancestry and ancestors and talking to his grandparents about their memories - does make me feel even older! I showed him some of the albums and he asked if he could take my father's medals into school. Previously my grandaughter took them into school for work on the second world war and they returned safely so hopefully my grandson will keep them safe. I've also got three huge volumes of Newspapers that go through the war. There was one of those things where they release a new magazine each week and you pay a fortune to collect them all, I'm sure you've seen something similar whether it's about knitting, or modelling etc. Well this one my father collected was a combination of a newspaper and a magazine. So in each edition there was an old newspaper, complete with ads, radio programmes etc. I find them fascinating to look at. In one of the magazines about Dunkirk there was a map and when I looked I found my father had inked in his marching route to get to Dunkirk where he was apparently queueing up in the water, chest deep for several hours before he luckily got rescued and returned to England. My grandson couldn't quite believe it. Anyway what I was going on to say is that maybe I've now found the person to pass the collection of medals and pictures on to. My brother's children aren't interested in any of these, my brother wasn't particularly interested in looking at them all either and maybe the old idea about passing things down the male line has gone. My nephew hasn't any children and doesn't have any intention of having any so the male line will come to a holt with him anyway. I'd hate to think of things just being thrown away in the future.

[Mervyn and Trish]

On balance I think I'd sell it, use the money to buy my daughter the bigger house she needs and thank my grandfather for it. Better than leaving it unseen and unloved at the bank.

[Ranchi]

On a slightly different note. A few years ago I went into Aberdeen Art Gallery as I was passing and the exhibition of the moment was called ‘From Van Gogh to Vettriano’. It was a very good exhibition but the really amazing thing was that all of the works were from private houses within a radius of 30 miles of the city. I don’t know how the insurance was organised but it certainly gave the ‘loon on the Torry bus’ a chance to appreciate some art that otherwise would have benefitted only a limited audience.